12.15.08
Microsoft Wants One Throat to Choke
On managing rivals
Here is a decent new comment from LinuxCanuck, who started using GNU/Linux several years ago and also runs an insightful blog that we warmly recommend. He just wrote:
Microsoft would love for Linux to become something that it can deal with. If Linux was to try to become anything other than what it is, then it would make their job easier. The fact that it is decentralized and anarchistic makes it hard to attack. It is like trying to capture smoke.
Microsoft would love for Linux to be reduced to one distribution. This way they can take it over or attack it more easily. They are frustrated by the fact that Linux is not a company, but a concept.
We stated this many times before, so it’s reassuring to see it coming from other independent thinkers. Microsoft’s plan is to group everything inside Novell and under Mono (.NET), then treating GNU/Linux users as though they are jailed in a pen (technical and legal vulnerability).
Steve Ballmer openly said something alone the lines of Linux having no company behind it, which makes it harder to crush (Microsoft is used to doing that). Eben Moglen explains it rather clearly in the following video, which was captured by Joe Barr, R.I.P. [1, 2, 3]. █
Goblin said,
December 15, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I think the suspicion of Novell has spread, and as I say on many other forums I think that the “average user” is far more IT aware than 5 years ago.
Looking at stats on distrowatch, its become a trend that openSUSE is loosing popularity at a time when nearly all the other mainstream distros are gaining it.
I strongly believe that had Novell not jumped into bed with Microsoft, Novell would be in the position that Canonical is in now.
Speaking on a personal experience, Roy. I was reading that debate about performance of Opensuse. We used to have Novells effort installed on 15 of our local computer clubs machines. When I took over (or at least took on more responsibility there) we removed all instances of OpenSUSE and replaced with Ubuntu. On the hardware we are running, performance wise, I have found Ubuntu is faster.
@Trolls
For the trolls, thats MY experience. I dont really care about what OpenSUSE is like now, even if its footprint was 100k and could make a 80486 run like a Cray (that sort of rhymes!) , it still wouldnt be going anywhere near any system of mine.
“Having Microsoft/Novell involved with Linux, is like putting Count Dracula in charge of a blood bank”
http://www.openbytes.wordpress.com
pcolon said,
December 16, 2008 at 12:48 am
Thanks for the ogg version of “Happy Birthday, GNU”. Haven’t learned yet how to transcode to ogg from you tube.
Roy Schestowitz said,
December 16, 2008 at 3:48 am
ffmpeg2theora -p preview –sync ./the_flash_fileakf gave me some more tips.